[01x08] January 9th, 2011

[01x08] January 9th, 2011


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Alright, so there are a few problems that came to light in this episode. .... 2. when in public, you can't run a well-done show and censor anything with words or a face. it looks over-cautious and ugly and distracts from the show.
What is it with all this silly censoring? I can't help it - my eyes keep leaving the action to concentrate on the people in the background with their heads apparently in fogged up fish bowls. And why point the camera in the direction of a billboard, hat or T shirt if there's something so questionable on it that the 'smudge guy' has to work overtime?

TG UK don't seem to worry about such things when filming any of their US episodes. Only other show that seems to over-use this is Mythbusters where even the main participants rather thoughtlessly come to work with a logo we're never allowed to see on their shirt, hat or wetsuit, then jump on a bright yellow excavator with a blurry blob obscuring a three letter word for a certain furry animal that chases mice and that you might keep as a pet.

Is there a good reason for this annoying distraction because it's getting a bit too much use lately and I might give US TV shows a miss :cry:
 
Censoring people's faces may be a legal thing. Although if you're out in public, you shouldn't have any rights about being inadvertently photographed.

But company names could come down to the fact that TGUS is paid for with commercials from other companies. If, for example, Coca-Cola is paying for a large chunk of the show, they wouldn't want to see Pepsi billboards, bottles, or any other advertisements for the Pepsi company.


Anyway, I gave the episode a 9/10. This has been the best episode yet and it was genuinely good. I think if you go back and watch the season over again from the start, it really is getting into a rhythm. Hopefully it gets approved for a couple more seasons. And I really like the hosts, if I'm honest. The fact that we can all come up with things to complain about for each of them shows that they're human. So much TV here in America is hosted by surgically perfect hosts that are near perfect in almost every way, except in that they come off as fake and artificial in every way. The 3 hosts all have their pro's and con's. Rut tends to make me cringe with his awkward humor at times. Adam, like others have said, is more hit and miss, but I think his style of comedy can really work on the show, being a smart ass new yorker and all that. And then Tanner being a bit boring, but boring can work, I mean, James May isn't exactly a ball of excitement either, but I believe he is the best part of TGUK.
 
Yeah, the censoring is quite crazy, and Mythbusters is an especially bad example. Thank god I live in Norway where we never bleep or smudge out anything, not even tits, ass, fuck or what have you.
Not sure if foreigners are allowed to watch this but try this link:

http://www.nrk.no/skole/klippdetalj?topic=nrk:klipp/302030.

It's an educational program from our government funded national broadcaster. The tits and pussy start at around 0:30. Try showing that on TV in the US. Quite a few people would probably go to jail for child pornography and worse.

US is a strange country... Blood and brutal violence is fair game but a tit makes everyone go crazy? Jeeez...
What happened in America to make them so uptight?
 
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deal is: the bible talks a lot about killing and blood and guts, but when it comes to sex all it says is "Then Abraham knew his wife Sarah" etc.
 
And the bible dictates the US based on a 2000 year old fairytale? That's really fucked up.
 
The problem with this is that if you change the track, you have to dump all the times you have on the board already or re-run them (which I suspect is unlikely to happen). Perhaps they need to show less of the actual lap...

Yeah that's what I meant -- they need to show less of the laps.
 
I think they should drop BSSC completely, and replace it with the Cool Wall :D. Good chance of bickering/disagreements/audience involvement/contreversy/whatever. Should be plenty of cars to choose from as well. I also think it will give the hosts a chance to shame car makers and just be a little more edgy! I don't even care if it's biased! :p.

The problem with this is that if you change the track, you have to dump all the times you have on the board already or re-run them (which I suspect is unlikely to happen). Perhaps they need to show less of the actual lap...
They did this with TG AUS didn't they? Stig lapped 5 or so of the cars on the new track that did a lap on the old one, and then they averaged the times and added seconds etc...

I agree with you about showing less of the laps though. The show really loses momentum during that section. Show some interesting corners/In-car comments and chop the rest.
 
Originally Posted by lllllllllllllllllll
Dunno how TG AU is though).




Too bad they have poor ratings. The lingering effects of the first 2 seasons I guess.
This seasons 3 episodes and the Ashes Special were quite good.

Well, the first two seasons were on a partly government funded, non-commercial network, which really didn't have a great budget to spend on it. A bit like History compared to CBS or similar. This year the rights to top gear were bought by one of our commercial stations and while they have a bigger budget, they also use the full 18 minutes of ads in an hour broadcast. A lot of people were used to it (TG UK as well) on the previous carrier and realised that the more commercial carrier wouldn't necessarily be a better home, except for the ability to spend more cash on it. Commercial networks are also much more ruthless with respect to ratings.

I thought the Oz show had improved, but I wasn't overly happy with the hosts changing from season 2 to season 3, but can kinda see why they did change them.

In any case, there have been murmurings that there will still be a season 4 next year, after some tweaking.
 
I'll give this an 8.

The Panamera review: very much like TGUK. In the two UK segments (vs. post office, premium exec saloons) they did touch on the "very ugly / goes like stink" theme, but Rutledge's plain language makes it a more naturally American review.

Car vs. plane, LA - Vegas : I did like the touch where both began at a running start -- usually Clarkson's already in the car, leaving the other two eating his dust. The quotation from Hunter Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas seemed apt -- remember that Clarkson likes to quote from recent movies and TV shows, and that fits right in.

FrankenBeemer review -- This was far better as a car review and overall than Clarkson's "search the world for metaphor" segment on the regular X6. It's good to show off the X6M's power on the track (which is something Clarkson didn't do) although putting it through off-road conditions should have emphasized the personality disorder of the car better.

BTW, about them not saying "Some say" re the Stig: that should be considered just a UK thing. It wasn't until the 4th series that the Stig began to be utilized as a character with a personality, and look what happened. If TGUS continues and there's demand enough from children, they may let US Stig do more, but for now, I'll agree with the temptation to keep the elements simple.
 
Personally I think Rut has great presentation skills.
His problem is that he over enunciates and has weird inflections. Doing so makes nearly everything he says come out unnatural and forced. It might just be that is how he speaks for memorized material vs just talking off the cuff. Happens to a lot of people, they can't speak someone else's words naturally.

The series as a whole has become surprisingly good. Sad thing is that there are still too many people out there sticking their nose up to the show just because it isn't the original. Even worse is that I keep reading new reviews saying "I just watched the first 10 minutes of the first episode of TGA and that is all I needed. It is a disaster!" I for one am glad that we have two watchable Top Gear programs now and that is a very good thing.
 
Probably one of the best episodes so far, and im going to give it an 8 because one of the trips people can always relate to
 
Maybe this is covered somewhere else, but are e:6/7/8 going to be released in HD sometime?
Thanks!
 
Maybe this is covered somewhere else, but are e:6/7/8 going to be released in HD sometime?
Thanks!

All are available over at The Pirate Bay. Just look for the torrents with 720p in the name and a size of 1.09GB.

I wouldn't be shocked if History has some issue with HD torrents being posted on this site since the torrents for episodes 6 and 7 have been available for some time now. I also wouldn't be surprised if this post mysteriously disappeared, but I won't blame the Mods and am just trying to help where I can.
 
At least they're using the UK version of give the car the real start and finish line, give the other modes the start and finish line 2 miles away.

Again.

...........

EDIT: Sweet Jesus, she should not be wearing those jeans. :blink:
 
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